1. Lookthe
For Southend University Hospital staff & volunteers August 2015
Hospital Heroes
There’s still time
to nominate your
colleagues Page 3
Medical model
An in-depth guide
to the latest
changes Page 6
In the spotlight
This month we take a
look at theatres and
critical care Page 11
Trust launches its new
e-prescribing system
With a £1.1 million
investment,
half from the
government and
half matched by the trust, the
hospital has recently launched
its electronic prescribing and
medicines administration
(ePMA) system, also known as
e-prescribing.
Designed to save staff
time, help improve the
flow of patients and, most
importantly, help improve
patient safety and overall
quality of care, it was
successfully rolled out onto
Balmoral ward at the end of
June after several months of
training and testing.
Benefits include the
elimination of errors from
handwritten prescriptions,
decreasing the risk of
medication errors. The
system also offers decision
support to providing clinical
information which helps guide
staff through the e-prescribing
process.
It’s already having a positive
impact on staff. Nurse Hayley
Cross from Balmoral ward,
said: “We were a bit hesitant
of the change but have
adapted to it quite quickly. We
still have some of our patients’
details on paper charts and
can’t wait for all the patients
to change to e-prescribing.
The time saved in not having
to search for paper charts and
not having to send the charts
to pharmacy is so invaluable
on the busy ward.
“It’s better for us and better
for patients.”
The move to ePMA is part of
the government’s wider plans
to create a ‘paperless’ NHS by
2018. The project is part-
funded via the government’s
‘Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards:
Technology Fund’.
Its launch has been a
successful group effort with
teams from pharmacy, IT,
nursing and clinicians all
involved in the configuration,
drug file building, testing and
training to get the system
ready for use.
Continued on page 2
Remembering
Colin George
Colin George, chairman of the
Southend Hospital Charitable
Foundation, the driving
force behind £3.7million
of fundraising projects at
Southend Hospital, has died.
Mr George, who was also
general secretary at Southend
Guild of Help and Citizens
Advice Bureau from March
1973 to May 2003, died
peacefully in his sleep at the
age of 77.
He leaves behind a wife,
Pamela, son Stephen and
daughter Christine Chisholm.
Trust chairman Alan Tobias
OBE said: “We are deeply
saddened by the death of Colin
George.
“He was not only an amazing
ambassador for our hospital
charity, but also a hospital
governor for whom the care
and respect of our patients
was paramount.”
More news available at
southend.nhs.uk:
£1.1m investment Staff on Balmoral ward celebrate the launch
Ambassador Colin George
Instant news
We are on Twitter
@SouthendNHS
Follow us
facebook.com/
SouthendNHS
Latest videos
Watch us at:
/SouthendHospitalNHS
>
New system will help improve patient safety and overall quality of care

2. www.southend.nhs.uk
Wewantyou!
Nominate your Hospital Heroes 2015
Nominations for the trust’s annual
Hospital Heroes awards are open
until Friday 31 July and it’s your
chance to support the awards and
reward your colleagues who go
above and beyond.
You can nominate
colleagues and teams
who you feel promote
good practice, inspire
others and strive for high
quality care for every
patient, every time.
*Employee of the year (£250)
will be selected from the 12
monthly Hospital Hero winners.
See last year’s winners at
bit.ly/SouthendHH2014:
Categories
Be a part of it and make your
nomination count in one of the
following eight categories:
• Innovation (£100)
• Quality care (£100)
• Unsung hero (£100)
• Chief executive’s outstanding
leadership award (£100)
• Chairman’s outstanding
achievement award (£100)
• Team of the year (£300)
• Patients’ choice award –
sponsored by the Echo. This
award is open to the public
to make nominations (£200)
• Employee of the year
(£250)*
Closing date for nominations is 9am
on Monday 10 August and you can
make your nomination by emailing
hospital.heroes@southend.nhs.uk
ensuring that the category is in the
subject line with the name of the
person/team you are nominating.
Night of celebrations Non-executive
director, Fred Heddell, CBE and
some of last year’s nominees.
Continued from front
Chris Overland, pharmacy electronic
prescribing and computer services
manager, said: “This newly installed JAC
ePMA module will ‘close the loop’ between
a doctor prescribing a prescription on
the ward, the drugs being dispensed in
pharmacy and nurses administering them
to a patient. It will provide a complete
electronic record of medicines prescribed,
dispensed and administered.”
e-prescribing will continue to be rolled out
across wards and outpatient clinics over
the next 18 months, with the stroke unit
(Benfleet and Paglesham wards) going live
next at the end of July and Windsor ward
and Princess Anne ward to follow
on August 18.
2 The Look August 2015
John Manna, 78, from
Benfleet, passed away five
months ago but his legacy
lives on thanks to a donation
of new equipment to the
hospital’s heart and chest
clinic.
His daughter, Lucie Manna,
25, from Rayleigh, explained
why her dad would have been
pleased to see the equipment
come to his local hospital.
She said: “Through his
work dad had private health
insurance but although he
worked abroad a lot he
always saw this area as home,
was always big on charity
and would have wanted his
equipment to be used by local
people who have a need for it
and would benefit from it.”
That equipment is worth
thousands of pounds and
comprises a hospital bed,
continuous positive airway
pressure (or CPAP) machines,
and a home ventilator which
are all used for respiratory
conditions such as obstructive
sleep apnoea, chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease
and many other breathing
problems. They also donated
a blood pressure monitor.
Staff from the respiratory
team were delighted and
moved by the donation, as
Lisa Ward, lead respiratory
nurse at the hospital,
explained: “We are so grateful
for the kind gesture from
John and his family, thinking
of others at a time when they
have suffered such a loss.
“This equipment will make
a huge impact on the care of
these patients and will help so
many people for many years
to come.”
At any one time the Manna
family donation could be
helping to improve the lives
of ten people, which will turn
into hundreds over the years
the equipment will be in use.
John’s legacy donation
Pictured:
Lucie Manna (far right)
and the respiratory team.
This
donation
is going
to help
so many
people
“
get in touch
Claire Hankey - Head of communications
Amanda Burton - Senior communications manager
Carly Ross - Communications manager
Dean Newman - Communications manager
Alex Norman - Communications & engagement officer
All can be contacted through
communications@southend.nhs.uk
LOOK
the
2014
winner
Keith
Blackman

3. 4 The Look August 2015 www.southend.nhs.uk The Look 5
June 15-21 was Learning Disability Week
2015, a national event led by Mencap.
Sarah Haines, clinical nurse specialist
for people with learning disabilities at
the hospital, organised a series of events
including the production of a film raising
awareness of consent (autumn release)
and an awareness stand giving away
information packs with details of the
resources available in the hospital.
Sarah said: “Alongside it all we also
did a Twitter campaign across the
region featuring numerous people
holding the Learning Disability Week
sign. I’ve been tweeting them all
week and it went viral, so we really
helped raise some awareness for
the week.”
LOOK BACK: Learning Disability Week
The new maternity booking system,
developed by the IT department, is
going live during August as part of the
transformation programme for the
women’s and children’s directorate.
Women no longer need to see a
GP to be referred for maternity care.
The new online system will provide a
quick and convenient way to access
maternity services, as self-referrals can
be completed any time of the day, using
a computer or most mobile and tablet
devices. The new system will include
automatic referral to the smoking
cessation service, with an opt-out
option for women who don’t wish to be
referred.
In addition, to reduce the number of
wasted appointments, there is a facility
for women who have been attending
the fertility clinic to cancel their
outstanding appointment now that
they are pregnant.
Deborah Edwards, co-ordinator of
the pregnancy booking line, who has
been leading the project, said: “We are
excited to be introducing the online
referral facility – it brings our maternity
services truly into the 21st century
by providing a service that meets the
demand of women in the Southend
area as well as others who choose to
use our service.
Once we receive the information, a
midwife from the pregnancy booking
line phones to discuss and take consent
for the antenatal screening blood tests,
give advice and confirm their named
midwife. By providing information in
advance, using our secure website, we
will reduce the amount of time that
calls take by up to 15 minutes. We can
then use this time on the phone with
women who need extra reassurance
or who have additional questions –
it’s all about individualised care and
facilitating informed choice.”
Online maternity
service launch
Transformation programme news
A new online
maternity booking
system will bring
services into 21st
century for women’s
and children’s
directorate. More news available at
southend.nhs.uk:
Maternity team Project leader Debbie Edwards (far left) and her team.
Nurseries(Wakering)Ltd.
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10 acre family run garden centre ∙ cafe ∙
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4. Highlighting some of the nice things said
about us across the twittersphere in
140 characters or less, and the stories
behind them. This month we hear from
Sue Atherton, who tweeted:
@sooziatherton
Thank you @SouthendNHS for safe delivery of
my 5th grandchild yesterday #proud sister
Sue said: “When my granddaughter was born
there was a little concern when she had to
have her airway cleared, but both her mum
and dad were kept clearly informed of all
procedures.
“Samantha, my daughter-in-law, was
exhausted after a long day but both mum and
dad knew their new bundle was in safe hands.
“They send a huge thank you to the
wonderful team that took care of them. My
new granddaughter’s name is Florence and
weighed in at 7lb 8oz.
“I was diagnosed with advanced metastatic
breast cancer in 2006, so I wouldn’t be here
today to enjoy the wonder of being a nannie
without the dedicated oncology team and
their staff.”
Follow us on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/SouthendNHS
WORD ON
THE TWEET
With the medical model changes well under way, we meet some of the staff backing it to work
August 2015 www.southend.nhs.uk The Look 7
MEDICAL MODEL CITIZENS
Three weeks in to her new role
and Jenny Galpin (above) says
she is already impressed by the
commitment staff at Southend
have to our transformation
plans.
As our new project director for
transformation Jenny is taking
up the baton from Andrew
Murphy and the team from
Kingsgate to continue our focus
on changing the way we work to
ensure our services remain fit
for the future.
She said: “What is exciting
for me is that this role enables
me to work with a range of
different people from across the
trust to help and support them
to transform their services and
deliver the best possible care for
patients.”
A mum of three grown
up children, Jenny comes
to Southend having worked
most of her NHS career at
Basildon Hospital starting out
in personnel before moving
into project management
and progressing to the role of
Director of Estates and Facilities.
Recent experience has seen
Jenny working in roles at
Queens Hospital in Romford
tackling referral to treatment
times (RTT) and Barnet and
Chase Farm on their clinical
services strategy.
Jenny said: “We have a great
deal of change coming up
which will be a challenge for
the organisation. From what I
have already seen, particularly
with the introduction of the
new medical model, there is a
strong commitment for staff to
work together which will help us
maintain focus going forward.”
Welcome to:
Jenny Galpin
Project
director for
transformation
“
This role
enables
me to
work
with a
range of
different
people
from
across
the trust
uch has been made of the benefits of
introducing our new Medical Model but what
do the staff actually delivering care in the new
way really think?
As you are probably aware it took a huge
amount of work during the past month to
accommodate the new model, with colleagues from other areas
relocating to different wards and areas.
This means that for the first time we are bringing together,
into one area, the male and female acute medical units (AMUs),
the day assessment unit (DAU), ambulatory care, a short-stay
department of medicine for the elderly (DME) ward and a
hospital to home (H2H) service.
As Dr John Day, clinical director for medicine, explains: “This
will mean we are better equipped to cope with the needs
of acute medical patients. We have also adopted an ‘assess
to admit’ approach, which means we can provide tests and
investigations for patients without the need for them to stay in
hospital.
“Alongside these changes, the hospital is also developing
its older people’s acute service (OPAS) to provide rapid
assessment, diagnosis, treatment and access to specialist
inpatient beds, health care and social services so more elderly
patients can get home quicker and have the right support when
they need it most.”
The change, although daunting, is good. It’s especially good
for both staff and patients as the creation of a single medical
model assessment area means patients are seen more quickly
and most importantly by the right teams.
Marc Brant (pictured below), associate nurse practitioner,
said: “The ambulatory emergency care approach means more
adult patients are being managed safely and efficiently on the
same day and avoiding admission to a hospital bed.”
He is joined by colleagues on a series of posters you may see
around the trust promoting the new model.
Lynn Coley, a modern matron, said: “It’s exciting to be
involved in the development of a new service that is responsive
to the needs of the emergency medical patient.”
The posters that are being used across
the trust show that everyone involved in
the medical model are committed to its
success and that success relies on every
member of the team, whether you are a
housekeeper, modern matron, associate
nurse practitioner or healthcare assistant.
Janet Orchard, healthcare assistant,
said: “The run up to our new services has
been worth the wait, I feel so honoured
to be part of this wonderful team and new
services.”
They may be the people on the
poster but it of course involves
many more dedicated,
hardworking people besides
who are helping make this
medical model a success for
staff, patients and the trust as
a whole.
M

5. www.southend.nhs.uk The Look 9
S
outhend University Hospital,
which has been providing sexual
health services for over 30 years,
is now part of SHORE, a newly launched
sexual health service for Southend
offering improved access to sexual and
reproductive health care from a choice of
venues for Southend residents.
Sexual Health Outreach Reproduction
and Education (SHORE) sees the trust
partner with South Essex Partnership
University Foundation Trust (SEPT) and
Brook. The three partners were awarded
the contract by Southend Borough
Council to provide integrated sexual
health services in Southend for the next
five years.
The three centres will eventually offer
identical services, meaning no need to go
to different centres for different advice
and will provide help for people needing
condoms, the pill, are worried that they
have a sexually transmitted infection
or just want some friendly advice and
support.
The services will be offered at Southend
University Hospital, the Kingsley Ward
Centre, the Carlingford Centre and the
Thorpendene Clinic, all of which currently
offer sexual health support but will now
offer it all under the umbrella of SHORE.
Alison Keefe, sexual health clinic
manager at Southend Hospital, said:
“What’s great about this partnership
is that it will offer a better choice for
patients as the service expands.
“This means we can reach far more
people than ever before and spread
the right message and right help whilst
having a positive impact on the sexual
health of people, young and old, across
Southend.”
Full service details and opening hours at
www.southend.nhs.uk:
NEW SERVICE
sexual
health
The trust’s
sexual health
clinic manager
Alison Keefe
This new area on STAFFnet will make
it easier for staff to ask for help with
IT issues, or to raise a request for an
IT service such as ordering a piece of
equipment or setting up an account for a
new member of staff.
Logging calls through the self-service
portal will mean your request goes to
straight to the right place, reducing any
delays which may occur if you are hanging
on the phone waiting for the team to get
to your issue in the queue.
If you have an immediate IT issue that is
urgent and affecting your ability to work
you can still contact the service desk by
telephone on extension 5678.
To make the process to request IT
services simpler, you can now log all the
information yourself without having to
email or fax a form to the IT service desk.
This includes:
• New starter requests
• Placing orders for equipment such as
a laptop
• Medway ad hoc requests
• Voice mail requests
• Bring your own device (BYOD)
requests
• Push mail
• Call forward all
• Direct dial In
The process won’t take any longer than
it does now and will mean the IT service
desk can process your request faster.
How to log calls
• You can access the IT self-service
portal from STAFFnet here:
http://servicedesk.southend.nhs.uk/
sw/selfservice/
• Use your normal login and password
that you would use to login to your
computer.
• Click on My Services from the left
hand menu or by clicking the My
Services icon.
The new IT self-service portal is now live!
9.30am
Sunday 20 September 2015
www.southendhospital-fundraising.org
'7km Seafront Stroll'
or
‘18km Hadleigh Hike’
More info: 01702 385337
Choose yourchallenge !

6. ating and drinking
is something that
most of us take
for granted, but
for some patients it can be
a major issue, causing an
increased risk of food, drink
and medications going down
the wrong way and serious
chest infections.
But now, the trust’s
expanded team of nine speech
and language therapists is
on hand to assess, treat and
manage patients with feeding
and swallowing difficulties.
To assist nursing staff in
identifying patients who may
need help.
The team is carrying out
‘water swallow screening’ to
enhance awareness of these
issues and increase insight
into the warning signs of
swallowing problems. The
screening tool provides a
straightforward and safe way
for nurses to establish when a
patient’s swallow safety is in
question.
There was no speech and
language therapy service to
the acute wards and gradually
the team has grown to its
current size. A bigger team
means that it can offer more
training, faster, with just
over half the hospital having
received the training to date.
This important initiative is
being led by four members of
the team across the hospital.
As swallowing issues can
arise in a great variety of
medical conditions, the
screening will be useful in all
ward areas.
Heading up the team
is speech and language
therapist, Greg Heather,
who said: “Providing this
training to nursing staff
means that the team can get
to an unsafe patient faster,
decreasing the occurrence of
hospital acquired pneumonia
secondary to aspiration.”
Quality of care is of
paramount importance and
as such hospital staff have
welcomed the initiative and
been enthusiastic about the
training and benefits it brings.
This latest round of training
has focused on Blenheim,
AMU 2, Gordon Hopkins
and Sita Lumsden wards.
The speech and language
therapists for the acute stroke
unit have also been training
their nurses in the screening
tool, as this will form part
of the SEAMLESS electronic
stroke care pathway which is
going live at the beginning
of August.
www.southend.nhs.uk The Look 11
This directorate also encompasses pre-op
assessment and acute pain providing services
to the whole trust. This is very much a service
delivery directorate interlinking with all other
directorates.
Karen Kinnear, associate director
lead nurse, said: “Due to its very
nature it’s a high risk area with
complicated anaesthesia and critical
care. Ensuring patients have a safe
journey through our area is our
priority. The directorate has been
clinically led for the last few years
and that helps to keep us focussed.”
Sherrie Tucker, modern matron,
added: “Our focus is always on
patient safety, we monitor the five
steps to safer surgery on an on-
going basis. Staff are encouraged to
speak up and we have an open and
honest culture.”
Blanca Boira Segarra, clinical
director, talked about some of
the forthcoming challenges and
innovations: “With the new
transformation plans we are looking
at how we work together with
the specialities to become more
productive whilst remaining safe
and providing high quality care for
patients. It’s a big challenge which
we will rise to as a team, not just
this directorate but as a hospital
together.”
One of the most exciting
developments the directorate
is involved with is the Nervecentre which will
provide electronic information on patients’ clinical
observations, highlighting any deteriorating
patient and facilitating rapid assessments and
appropriate treatment.
Blanca added: “This will benefit
staff across the whole hospital as
they will have real time information
at their fingertips, ensuring quick
escalation to the appropriate
people meaning patients are seen
quickly by the right people at the
right time.”
Another interesting development
is a brand new simulation centre
due to start running in the
education centre soon.
Blanca said: “We are very
lucky in our directorate that we
have internationally recognised
simulation trainers so we can
provide in-house training for
our directorate, other areas and
even externally, creating income
generation.”
There is a national recruitment
issue for theatres across the
country and the directorate has a
robust action plan.
Karen explains: “Excellent
practice development and
education is one of our priorities.
High quality practice development
and education helps recruitment,
retention and ensures staff across
all of our areas are well trained.”
Theatres, critical care
& anaesthetics
Each month
we will be
profiling new
clinically-led
directorates.
Pictured:
Blanca Boira Segarra
(clinical director);
Karen Kinnear
(associate director lead
nurse); Sherrie Tucker
(modern matron).
Our
focus is
always
on
patient
safety.
“ Better swallow safety
Disclaimer: This magazine is printed on recycled paper and is cost neutral. It is designed and laid out in-house by the
communications team, and we are working in partnership with CPL Media who provide the advertising contained in the magazine
and print the copies free of charge. Southend University Hospital does not endorse or recommend the goods or services
provided by the advertisers in this magazine. The trust makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of advertisements contained
in this publication, but does not accept any responsibility for the content of the advertisements, promises made or the quality
or reliability of the products or services offered in the advertisements. The trust will not knowingly run an advertisement that is
untrue or fraudulent.
A new team will assess, treat and manage patients with feeding & swallowing difficulties.
Meet the team (l-r) Ashley Edwards, Laura Royce, Grace Rossiter and Greg Heather, all speech and language therapists
E

7. 12 The Look August 2015
Each month The Look meets with
colleagues from around the trust.
This month we meet Nadia Salama, a
radiotherapy mould room technician...
and Egyptian dancer!
Tell us about yourself...
I have worked at the trust for 13 years, coming
originally from studying art and design in college
and working with the elderly and disabled.
Outside of work I am a dancer and teacher of
Egyptian belly dance and I live on a 1936 German
Navy personnel carrier boat brought over from
Amsterdam.
Tell us about your role...
My role is part of radiotherapy treatment planning
and I am involved with certain patients starting
this part of their cancer journey. I work closely
with the consultants, radiographers, physicists,
dietitian and nurses to ensure each patient’s care
needs and complex treatment positioning needs
are met. I cannulate patients for planning CT
scans with contrast and run phlebotomy clinics for
radiotherapy patients.
what does a mould room
techniciaN do?
The technician is known for making plastic masks
to immobilise patients with head and neck or
brain cancer. I take impressions, make casts and
moulds for various parts of the body and work
in plaster, plastics, wax, lead alloy and silicone. I
enjoy inventing new techniques and accessories
to suit the more unusual challenges that come my
way whilst doing my best to put patients at ease.
If you would like to be featured in a
future edition of the The Look, email:
communications@southend.nhs.uk
CLOSER
> STAFF NOTICES
> child safeguarding nurse
Kate Sheehan recently joined the
hospital as a child safeguarding
nurse specialist. Kate said: “I am
looking forward to progressing the
local and national child safeguarding
agenda to include targeted training
for departments, delivering child
safeguarding supervision and providing
advice and support to all staff.”
Contact Kate on extension 8159.
> doggie dayventure
Natalie Crane started her NHS career at
Rochford Hospital as an HCA in 1991.
She transferred to Southend Hospital
and continued working as an HCA until
she undertook her training in 1998.
She has worked across different clinical
directorates in a variety of roles (HCA,
staff nurse, ward manager, clinical site
manager and matron). She played a
large part in setting up the stroke service with her colleagues
and is well respected and liked by staff and she will be greatly
missed. She is leaving the NHS to set up her own doggie day
care business. We know Nat loves her animals so so much
and that the dogs in her care will get 5 star treatment.
> Drvijay dixit
Dr Vijay Dixit, who has sadly passed
away, started his medical career in Kenya
and worked as a MO and Police Surgeon
before he moved to the UK with his
family, in 1983 and joined the hospital
in 1988 until his retirement in 2012.
Vijay was very well known throughout
the hospital and was much loved and
respected. He dedicated his life to his
career, but was also a family man. He was hardworking and
loyal to the institution, a caring clinician to his patients, a
person who could be relied on by colleagues and made many
friends at work, who still remember him warmly.
Foulness Island Bike Ride hosted by the Rotary Club of Thorpe
Bay, Sunday 30 August
Various start times available, choice of distances (11-23 miles)
Venue: Great Wakering Primary School
TO BOOK: www.thorpebayrotaryevents.co.uk/bikeride.html
Boogie at the Barn hosted by Funky Floors Ltd & the Rotary
Club of Westcliff, Sunday 30 August (7pm until 12am)
Venue: Tabor Farm Barn, Rochford
TO BOOK: www.rotaryclubofwestcliffonsea.co.uk/concert.html
Walk for Wards, Sunday 20 September (9.30am)
Venue: Southend Seafront (7km Seafront Stroll or 18km
Hadleigh Hike). Price: Free entry. Minimum sponsorship
requirement: £20
TO BOOK: www.shcwalkforwards2015.eventbrite.co.uk
A Look ahead